The Spiritual Man, Vol. 2, Part 4 THE SPIRIT, Ch. 4,
by Watchman Nee

ALL PRAYER OUGHT TO BE SPIRITUAL. Unspiritual
prayers are not genuine and can produce no positive result. What abundant
spiritual success there would be were every prayer offered by believers on
earth in fact spiritual! But sad to say, fleshly prayers are far too
numerous. Self-will found therein deprives them of spiritual fruitfulness.
Nowadays Christians appear to treat prayer as a means to accomplish their
aims and ideas. If they possessed just a little deeper understanding, they
would recognize that prayer is but man uttering to God what is God’s
will. The flesh, no matter where displayed, must be crucified; it is not
permitted even in prayer. No mixing of man’s will in God’s work is possible,
for He rejects the best of human intentions and man’s most profitable
prospects. God does not will He should follow what man has initiated. Other
than following God’s direction, we have no right to direct Him. We have no
ability to offer save to obey God’s guidance. God will do no work which
originates with man, no matter how much man may pray. He condemns such
praying as fleshly.

As believers enter the true realm of the spirit,
immediately they shall see how empty they themselves are, for absolutely
nothing in them can impart life to others or work havoc upon the enemy.
Instinctively they will therefore reckon on God. Prayer then becomes
imperative. True prayer uncovers the emptiness in the petitioner but the
fullness in the Petitioned. Unless the flesh has been reduced to a “vacuum”
by the cross, what use is prayer and what can it possibly signify?

Spiritual prayer does not proceed from the flesh
nor the thought, desire, or decision of the believer; rather does it follow
purely from that which is offered according to the will of God. It is prayed
in the spirit, that is to say, spiritual prayer is made after one has
discerned the will of God in his intuition. The command insisted upon in the
Bible is to “pray at all times in the spirit” (Eph. 6.18). If that is not
the way we are praying we must be praying in the flesh. We should not open
our mouths too hastily upon approaching God. On the contrary, we first must
ask God to show us what and how to pray before we make our request known to
Him. Have we not consumed a great deal of time in the past asking for what
we wanted? Why not now ask for what God wants? Not what we
want but what He wants. If such be the case, then the flesh is provided no
footing here. It takes a spiritual man to offer true prayer.

All spiritual prayers have their source in God.
God makes known to us what we ought to pray by unfolding to us the need and
by giving that need as a burden in our intuitive spirit. Only an intuitive
burden can constitute our call to pray. Yet how we have overlooked many
delicate registrations in the intuition through carelessness. Our prayer
should never exceed the burden in our intuition. Prayers which are not
initiated or responded to in the spirit originate instead with the believer
himself. They are therefore of the flesh. So that his prayer may not be
fleshly but may be effectual in the spiritual domain, the child of God ought
to confess his weakness that he does not know how to pray (Rom. 8.26), and
petition the Holy Spirit to teach him. He next should pray according to His
instruction. God gives us utterance to pray just as he gives us utterance to
preach. The need for the former equals that of the latter. In acknowledging
our total weakness, we then are able to depend on the movement of the Holy
Spirit within our spirit for uttering His prayer. How empty that work is
which is done by the flesh; how likewise fruitless is that prayer which is
offered in the flesh.

Not only should we pray with the spirit; we
should “pray with the mind also” (1 Cor. 14.15). In praying, these two must
work together. A believer receives in his spirit what he needs to pray and
understands in his mind what he has received. The spirit accepts the burden
of prayer while the mind formulates that burden in prayerful words. Only in
this way is the prayer of a believer perfected. How often the Christian
prays according to the thought in his mind without possessing any revelation
in his spirit. He becomes the origin of the prayer himself. But true prayer
must originate from the throne of God. It initially is sensed in the
person’s spirit, next is understood by his mind, and finally is uttered
through the power of the Spirit. Man’s spirit and prayer are inseparable.

To be able to pray with the spirit a Christian
must learn first to walk according to the spirit. No one can pray with his
spirit if during the whole day he walks after the flesh. The state of one’s
prayer life cannot be too greatly disconnected from the condition of his
daily walk. The spiritual condition of many too often disqualifies them from
praying in the spirit. The quality of a man’s prayer is determined by the
state of his living. How could a fleshly person offer spiritual prayer? A
spiritual person, on the other hand, does not necessarily pray spiritually
either, for unless he is watchful he also shall fall into the flesh.
Nonetheless, should the spiritual man pray often with his spirit, his very
praying shall keep his spirit and mind continually in tune with God. Praying
exercises the spirit which in turn is strengthened through such exercising.
Negligence in prayer withers the inner man. Nothing can be a substitute for
it, not even Christian work. Many are so preoccupied with work that they
allow little time for prayer. Hence they cannot cast out demons. Prayer
enables us first inwardly to overcome the enemy and then outwardly to deal
with him. All who have fought against the enemy on their knees shall see him
routed upon their rising up.

Now the spiritual man grows stronger through
such exercises. For if a believer prays often with his spirit, his spiritual
efficiency shall be increased greatly. He will develop sharp sensitivity in
spiritual affairs and will be delivered from all spiritual dullness.

The current need of the spiritual Christian is
to learn by God’s revelation in his spirit how to detect the enemy’s attack
and subsequently through prayer to disclose it. He should quickly understand
any movement in his spirit so that he may achieve immediately through prayer
what God desires him to accomplish. Prayer is work. The experiences of many
children of God demonstrate that it accomplishes far more than does any
other form of work. It is also warfare, for it is one of the weapons in
fighting the enemy (Eph. 6. 18). However, only prayer in the spirit is
genuinely effectual.

Praying in the spirit is most productive in
attacking the enemy or resisting his wiles. It can destroy as well as build
up. Whatever issues from sin and Satan it destroys, but what-every belongs
to God it edifies. Prayer is thus one of the most significant instruments in
spiritual work and warfare. Yes, spiritual work and warfare turn on the
matter of prayer. If a believer fails in prayer, he in fact fails in
everything.

Spiritual Warfare

Broadly speaking, a Christian who has not yet
experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit is rather vague about the reality
of the spiritual realm. He is like the servant of Elisha whose eyes were
closed to that sphere. He may receive instructions from the Bible, yet his
understanding is confined to the mind because he still lacks revelation in
his spirit. But upon experiencing the baptism his intuition becomes acutely
sensitive and he discovers in his spirit a spiritual world opening before
him. By the experience of the baptism in the Holy Spirit he not only touches
the supernatural power of God but contacts God’s Person as well.

Now it is just there that spiritual warfare
begins. This is the period when the power of darkness disguises himself as
an angel of light and even attempts to counterfeit the Person and the work
of the Holy Spirit. It is also the moment when the intuition is made aware
of the existence of a spiritual domain and of the reality of Satan and his
evil spirits. The Apostles were taught in the Scriptures by the Lord after
Calvary; but they were made conscious of the real existence of a spiritual
realm following Pentecost. Spirit-baptism marks the starting point of
spiritual warfare.

Once a believer has contacted the Person of God
via the baptism in the Holy Spirit, he then has his own spirit released. He
now senses the reality of the things and beings in the spiritual domain.
With such knowledge (and let us call to mind that the knowledge of a
spiritual man does not accrue to him all at once; some of it may, and
usually does, come through many trials), he encounters Satan. Only those who
are spiritual perceive the reality of the spiritual foe and hence engage in
battle (Eph. 6.12). Such warfare is not fought with arms of the flesh (2 Cor.
10.4). Because the conflict is spiritual so must the weapons. It is a
struggle between the spirit of man and that of the enemy—an engagement of
spirit with spirit.

Before he arrives at such a juncture in his
spiritual walk, the child of God neither understands, nor can he engage in,
the battle of the spirits. Only after his inner man has been strengthened by
the Holy Spirit does he know how to wrestle with the adversary in his
spirit. As he spiritually advances he begins to discover the reality of
Satan and his kingdom and then it is that he is given to understand how to
resist and attack the foe with his spirit.

The reasons for such conflict are many, with the
enemy’s tactic of attack and blocking constituting the greatest. Satan
frequently either unsettles the emotions of the physical bodies of spiritual
believers, or he blocks the works of the spiritual ones, or he may disturb
their environments. The need to fight for God forms still another reason for
this warfare. As Satan plots in the air and works on earth against God, so
His people fight back with spiritual power, destroying the enemy’s plots and
plans through their prayers. Though at times saints do not know for sure
what Satan’s scheme is nor what he is doing at the moment, they nevertheless
continue to press the fight with no let up, for they understand who their
antagonist is.

Beyond the above two explanations, spiritual
combat has for its existence yet another cause: the need to be delivered
from Satan’s deception and to deliver deceived souls.* In spite of the fact
that their spirit’s intuition becomes sharp and sensitive after they are
baptized in the Holy Spirit, believers may nonetheless fall into deception.
To preclude their plunging into the wiles of the adversary, they need not
only spiritual sensitivity but also spiritual knowledge. Should they be
ignorant of the manner in which the Holy Spirit leads, they may assume a
passive position and thereby become captives of the enemy. The easiest error
Christians can commit at this moment is to follow some irrational feeling or
experience rather than the leading in their inner man. Once baptized in the
Holy Spirit, they have entered the supernatural realm. Unless believers
appreciate their own weakness, that is, know how incompetent they are in
themselves to encounter the supernatural, they shall be deceived.

*Consult
Part Eight, Chapter 3 and Part Nine, Chapter 4.

The Christian’s spirit can be influenced by
either of two forces: the Holy Spirit or the evil spirit. He commits a fatal
blunder who thinks his spirit can be controlled solely by the Holy Spirit
and not be so by the evil spirit too. Let it be forever known that aside
from the Spirit that is from God, there is additionally “the spirit of the
world” (1 Cor. 2.12), which is in fact the spiritual foe of Ephesians 6.12.
Except the Christian shuts up his spirit to resist, he may find the evil one
usurping his spirit through deceit and counterfeit.

When a child of God becomes spiritual he is
subject to the influence of the supernatural world. At this point it is
vital for him to know the difference between “spiritual” and “supernatural,”
the confusion of which forms the cause of many deceptions. Spiritual experiences are those which originate with the
believer’s spirit, while those of the supernatural may not necessarily come
from there. They may arise from physical senses or from the soulical sphere.
A Christian ought never interpret a supernatural experience as always being
a spiritual one. He should examine his experiences and determine whether
they enter through the outer sensual organs or come via the inner spirit.
Whatever emanates from outside, however supernatural it may be, is never
spiritual.

The Lord’s saints should not receive everything supernatural
unquestioningly, for Satan too can perform supernatural deeds. No matter how
the feeling is during the moment of experience nor how the phenomenon
appears or declares itself to be, believers should investigate its source.
The charge of 1 john 4.1 must be strictly observed: “Beloved, do not believe
every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many
false prophets have gone out into the world.” The counterfeits of the
adversary often exceed the believer’s expectation. If the Lord’s people will
humble themselves by admitting that deception is quite possible to them,
they will be the less deceived. Because of the counterfeits of the enemy,
spiritual warfare looms inevitable. Unless with their spiritssoldiers of Christ take to the field to meet the foe, they
shall find him coming in to suppress their spiritual strength. In spiritual
conflict the spirit of the Christian wars against the enemy evil spirit. Now
should the Christian be deceived already, then he fights to regain his
freedom. If not, then he strives to rescue others and to prevent the foe
from attacking. He takes the positive stance of subjugating the enemy by
opposing every one of Satan’s plans and works.

Such battles are fought in the strength of the
spirit. It requires power there to wage war. A Christian must understand how
to wrestle against the assailant with his spirit. Otherwise he cannot detect
how the enemy will attack or discern how God will direct him to fight. But
if he walks by the spirit he learns how to pray incessantly therein against
the wicked powers. And with each battle his inner man waxes that much
stronger. He comes to realize that by applying the law of the spirit he not
only can overcome sin but also Satan.

From that part of the Scriptures in which the Apostle touches
on spiritual warfare we can readily estimate how important strength is in
such conflict. Before he mentions the problem of spiritual warfare (Eph.
6.11-18), Paul first exhorts his readers to “be strong in the Lord and in
the strength of his might” (v.10). Where should there be this strength of
which he speaks? Paul tells us in Chapter 3: “strengthened with might
through his Spirit in the inner man” (v.16). The inner man is man’s center,
the spirit of man. And right there is where the powers of darkness attack
the man. Now if the inner man is weak everything else becomes weak. A frail
spirit produces fear in the heart which automatically weakens the believers
stand in the day of evil. What he needs pre-eminently is a firm spirit.
Except he understands the nature of the conflict a believer is not capable
of resisting in his
spirit against the principalities and the powers.

Many Christians find their spirit feathery and free when all
is sweetness and light; but just let there be eruptive war, and their spirit
becomes disturbed, fearful, and worried, until finally it is submerged. They
do not know why they are defeated. Satan’s aim is victory, and to this end
he attempts to remove believers from their ascension position by causing
their spirit to sink so that hecan ascend. Position is a primary factor in battle. When the
saint’s spirit tumbles, he loses his heavenly position. Christians must
consequently maintain a strong spirit and yield no ground to the enemy.

Upon realizing how his inner man is strengthened
with might through God’s Holy Spirit, a spiritual child of God learns the
absolute necessity of overcoming the enemy. His inner man grows sturdier as
he attacks the foe with prayer and wrestling. In the same manner that the
muscles of the wrestler develop in physical combat, just so the strength of
the believer’s spirit increases as he battles the adversary. The latter
mounts an assault in order to depress the believer’s inner man and thus to
afflict his soul. If the child of God has come to appreciate the wiles of
his assailant, he will not surrender at any point but will instead resist;
and his emotional soul is thereby protected. Resistance in the inner man
forces the enemy to go on the defensive.

Resistance is one of the indispensable elements
in spiritual combat. The best defense is a continuous offense. Oppose with
the will as well as with the strength in the spirit. Giving opposition means
struggling free from the power of suppression. The opponent will be routed
if one fights his way out by the spirit. But should one allow the enemy to
attack and not resist in return, then that one’s spirit will surely be
depressed, sink very low, and may require many days before it regains its
ascendancy. The spirit that does not withstand the enemy is often a
suppressed one.

How shall we resist? With the Word of God which
is the Sword of the Holy Spirit. As a believer receives God’s Word it
becomes “spirit and life” to him. Hence he can employ this as his weapon of
resistance. A heavenly believer knows how to use the Word of God
advantageously to break down the enemy’s lie. Even now a battle is raging in
the world of the spirit. Though unobserved by the eyes of the flesh, it is
sensed and proven by those who are seeking heavenly progress. Many who are
deceived and bound by the enemy need to be released. Not only is there need
for release from sin and selfrighteousness; many who are bound as well by
supernatural experience need release also. Due to curiosity and the prospect
of pleasant sensations, Christians gladly welcome these supernatural
phenomena, not recognizing that these merely puff up their pride without
producing any real or lasting result in terms of a holy and righteous life
or spiritual work. When the evil spirits succeed in their deceptions they
gain a footing in the believer. From this ground the enemy gradually
enlarges his frontiers until finally he renders the believer as one who
walks in the flesh.

Now obviously he who himself is bound cannot
possibly set others free. Only when wholly freed experientially from the
powers of darkness can the believer himself overcome the foe and rescue
others. The incidence of the danger of deception increases in proportion to
the number of those who experience the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The need
today is for a company of overcoming saints who know how to wage war for the
release of those under the enemy’s deception. The church of God shall be
defeated if she lacks members who know how to walk by the spirit and how to
fight therewith against the enemy. May God raise up such!

Something to Guard against in Spiritual Warfare

Each stage of the believer’s walk possesses its
particular hazard. The new life within us wages a constant war against all
which opposes its growth. During the physical stage, it is a war against
sins; in the soulish phase, it is a battle against the natural life; and
lastly, on the spiritual level, it is an onslaught against the supernatural
enemy. It is solely when a Christian turns spiritual that the evil spirit in
that realm launches its assault against his spirit. Accordingly, this is
called spiritual warfare. It is fought between spirits and with spirit. Such
a phenomenon rarely if ever occurs with unspiritual believers. Do not
imagine for a moment, therefore, that when one actually reaches the
spiritual plateau he is beyond conflict. A Christian life is an unending
engagement on the battlefield. The Christian has no possibility of laying
down his arms until he stands before the Lord. While soulish, he faces
conflict with the flesh and its danger; when spiritual, he encounters
spiritual warfare and its peculiar hazards. Initially there is the war
against Amalek in the wilderness. Upon entering Canaan there is next the
struggle against the seven tribes of Canaan, wherein the attack of Satan and
his evil hosts against the believer’s spirit is mounted only after the
believer has become spiritual.

Since the enemy focuses particular attention on
the spirit, how necessary for spiritual believers to keep their own spirit
in its normal state and frequently to exercise it as well. They must control
with utmost caution all bodily sensations and carefully distinguish all
natural and supernatural phenomena. Their mind must be kept perfectly calm
without any disturbance; their physical senses too must be maintained in
quiet balance without agitation. Spiritual Christians should exercise their
will to deny and oppose any falsehood and seek to follow the inner man with
their whole heart. Should they at any time follow the soul instead of the
inner man they have lost precious ground already in spiritual warfare.
Furthermore, they must be very careful to guard their spirit from being
passive in this warfare.

Now we have mentioned before that all our
guidance must proceed from the inner man: we must wait with our spirit for
the guidance of the Holy Spirit. All this is fundamentally true; however, we
need to exercise extreme prudence here lest we fall into grievous error. For
while we are waiting in our spirit for the Holy Spirit to move and guide us,
a danger readily arises wherein our spirit and our entire being may slide
into a state of passivity. Nothing can provide more ground for Satan to work
from than this state of inaction. On the one side we ought not to do
anything in our own strength save to obey the Holy Spirit; yet on the other
side we need to be watchful lest our spirit or any part of our being turns
mechanical and plunges into inertia. Our inner man must vitally govern our
total being and must cooperate actively with God’s Spirit.

When our spirit tumbles into passivity the Holy Spirit is
left with no way to use it. This is because His operation in a human life is
absolutely diametrical to that of Satan. The Holy Spirit
requires man to cooperate livingly with Him.
He desires man to work actively with Him because He never violates the
believer’s personality. By contrast, Satan demands a full stop in man so
that he may
take overand do everything in man’s stead. He wishes man to accept his
work passively. Satan wants to turn man into an
automaton. Oh, how we should guard against whatever is extreme and guard
against misunderstanding in spiritual doctrine. We need not fear being
radical in obeying the Lord, that is for sure; nor do we need to guard
against being extreme in denying the works of the flesh. But most vigilant
must we be that we not be led to any extremes through misconception.

We said most emphatically earlier that we ought
to seek God’s work, for vain are those things which belong to man and spring
from him. We have said that no spiritual value is possible except from what
is done by the Holy Spirit through our inner man and that we should
therefore wait with our spirit for revelation from God. Yes, this that we
have affirmed is quite true. And blessed is he who is willing to follow this
truth. Nonetheless, herein lies one of the gravest perils of all—that of
going to the extreme through misunderstanding. Countless believers mistake
this truth that we have enunciated as the call to inertia. They conceive the
idea that their mind should be emptied for the Holy Spirit to think for
them, that their emotion should be suppressed in order for Him to put His
affection in them, and that their will should make no decision so that He
can decide for them. They mistakenly assume they should accept without
question whatever comes to them. Their spirit should not cooperate actively
with the Holy Spirit but should wait passively for His moving. And then if
there be any movement, it automatically is assumed to be from Him.

This constitutes a very serious misjudgment. It is
a fact
that God wants to destroy every work of our flesh, but He never desires to
destroy our
personality.
He takes no pleasure in transforming us into automata; rather does He
delight in having us cooperate with Him. God does not wish us to be a people
void of thoughts, feelings, and decisions: He yearns for us to think what He
thinks, feel what He feels, desire what He desires. The Holy Spirit never
supplants us in thinking, feeling, and desiring; we ourselves must think,
feel and desire, but all according to God’s will. If our
mind, emotion and will plunge into a state of quiescence—in which we are no
longer active but idly waiting for an outside force to activate us, then our
spirit too cannot escape being passive at the same time. And thus Satan
benefits immeasurably when we are unable to exercise our spirit but expect
instead to be prodded by some external force.

A fundamental difference obtains between the work of the Holy
Spirit and that of the evil spirit. The
Holy Spirit moves people themselves to work, never setting aside man’s
personality; the evil spirit demands men to be entirely inactive so that he
may work in their place, reducing man’s spirit to a robot. Hence a passive spirit not only provides the evil one an
opportunity to function but binds the hand of the Holy Spirit as well,
because He will not operate without the cooperation of the believer. Under
these circumstances the evil power inevitably will attempt to exploit the
situation. Before a Christian becomes spiritual he is not confronted by this
danger of contacting the satanic power; but once he becomes spiritual the
wicked one naturally will assault his inner man. The fleshly Christian never
experiences this passivity of spirit; the spiritual alone encounters the
hazard of developing an errant spirit.

Due to his misconception of the destruction of
the flesh, a child of God may allow his inner man to sink into an inert
state. This affords the evil one a chance to simulate the Holy Spirit. If
the believer forgets that the enemy may influence his spirit as much as the
Holy Spirit can, he unwittingly may accept every moving in his spirit to be
from the Holy Spirit and thereby cede ground to Satan for pursuing his aim
of destroying the moral, mental, and physical well-being of the saint and
making him suffer unspeakable pains.

This is exactly what has happened to many who
have experienced “the baptism in the Holy Spirit.” They do not understand
that such an experience necessarily initiates them into a closer
relationship with the spirit world and exposes them to the influence of both
the Holy Spirit and
the
evil spirit. While they are experiencing a baptism in the spirit they
consider all supernatural experiences to be baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Truly they have been baptized in the spirit, but the searching question is,
in what spirit have they been baptized—in the Holy one or in the evil one?
Both of these may be viewed as “baptized in the spirit.” Not recognizing
that the Holy Spirit requires
theirspirit’s cooperation and that He never does violence to their
personality, many saints allow their inner man to descend into passivity and
to permit some outside force to burn, twist, or overthrow them. They, in a
word, have been baptized in the evil spirit.

Some Christians genuinely have been baptized in
the Holy Spirit, yet being unable to distinguish between spirit and soul
they are deceived afterwards. Because of their special experience, they
maintain that now that the Holy Spirit is in full control they should not
take any active step but remain completely passive. And so their inner man
is submerged in total inertia. Satan begins to feed them many excessive
pleasant sensations and numerous visions, dreams, and supernatural
experiences too. They receive them all as from the Holy Spirit, not
realizing that their inert spirit like a magnet draws in these counterfeit
experiences. Had they known how to distinguish the sensational and the
supernatural from the spiritual, these believers would have examined those
experiences. Now, however, because of a lack of discernment combined with a
passive spirit, they settle deeper and deeper into the enemy’s deception.

As the believer’s spirit grows increasingly quiescent, his
conscience of course follows suit. Once his conscience is rendered passive,
he next expects to be led
directlyby the Holy Spirit, either by voice or by Scripture verse. He
concludes that He no longer will lead him by his conscience or by decisions
emanating from his intuition; instead he will be led in the highest way. The
Holy Spirit, he now assumes, will speak either directly to him or indirectly
through some Bible verses. By ceasing to employ his conscience and by letting it drop into inaction, the saint is
deceived into minding Satan in his daily walk. The Holy Spirit, however,
true to His Own working principle, will always refrain from taking over
man’s conscience and using it for him. Satan alone will seize the occasion
to replace the guidance of the believer’s conscience and intuition with
supernatural voices and other devices.

As conscience grows more passive and the evil spirit supplies
his guidance, some Christians begin to lower their moral standard—thinking
they henceforth live according to a higher life principle, and therefore
treat immoral matters as not quite so immoral any more. They also cease to
make any progress in life or work. Instead of
exercisingtheir intuitive power to detect the thought of the Holy
Spirit or of engaging their conscience to discern right and wrong, they
simply follow the supernatural voice which comes from outside and reduce
themselves to robots. These Christians mistake the supernatural voice for
the voice of God. They disregard their reasoning, their conscience, and
other people’s advice. They turn out to be the most stubborn individuals in
the world: they refuse to listen to anyone. They picture themselves as
obeying a higher law of life than the rest of their spiritual confreres. How
they fit perfectly the description of the Apostle: “whose consciences are
seared”! (1 Tim. 4.2) Their consciences are void of conviction!

Hence to sum up: in our spiritual warfare we
must ever and anon preserve our inner man in an active state—wholly yielded
to the Holy Spirit, yet not in passive submission; otherwise we shall be
deceived by the enemy. Even should the adversary not assault us, we still
shall retreat into a shut-in position if our spirit is not operative and
outstretched. For the enemy would have the chance anyway to seal off all
outlets for our spirit to work, to serve, and to war. It would suffer as
though suppressed. Our inner man must accordingly be active and outgoing. It
must resist Satan constantly or else it will be attacked from all sides.

Another very important principle to learn in
spiritual warfare is that we must attack Satan incessantly. This is to
prevent ourselves from being attacked. When a believer has crossed into the
domain of the spiritual he daily ought to maintain a combat attitude in his
spirit, praying therewith for the overthrow of all the works of Satan done
through the evil powers. If not, he shall discover his spirit shall fall
from heaven, grow very weak and feeble, gradually lose its senses, and
finally become scarcely detectable. This is all because the believer’s inner
man has collapsed into such a passive condition that it has ceased to launch
out in attack. Hence ground is surrendered to the enemy from which to
assail, surround and shut in his spirit. But if the Christian daily “lets
out” his spirit and continually resists the foe, he will keep his spirit
mobilized. And with each passing day it shall wax stronger and stronger.

A Christian must be delivered from every
misconception with respect to spiritual life. He often surmises, before he
enters the spiritual sphere, that if only he could be as spiritual as his
brother how happy he would be! He visualizes the spiritual odyssey as a most
happy affair; and so he contemplates spending his days in perfect joy.
Little does he know that the opposite is the truth. The spiritual path does
not yield any enjoyment to the person himself; it is instead a life of daily
fighting. To remove warfare from a spiritual life is to render it
unspiritual. Life in the spirit is a suffering way, filled with watching and
laboring, burdened by weariness and trial, punctuated by heartbreak and
conflict. It is a life utterly outpoured entirely for the kingdom of God and
lived in complete disregard for one’s personal happiness. When a Christian
is carnal he lives towards himself and for his own “spiritual” enjoyment. Of
little real value is he in God’s hand. Only as he dies to sin and to his
personal life shall he be able to be used by God.

A spiritual life is one of spiritual usefulness
because it is lived to mount assault upon assault against God’s spiritual
enemy. We ought to be zealous for God, relentlessly attacking that enemy and
never allowing this most useful spirit of ours to sink into passivity.